Adapting to a Changing Environment

Confronting the Consequences of Climate Change

Tim R. McClanahan and Joshua Cinner

Tackles the problem of climate change adaptation from an interdisciplinary perspective

Written by world leaders in coastal ecology

Provides the most detailed and holistic study to date on how climate change will impact the ecology and economy of people dependent on natural resources

Detailed case study is complemented by the development of a general framework applicable to other areas and social-ecological systems

Adapting to a Changing Environment

Confronting the Consequences of Climate Change

Tim R. McClanahan and Joshua Cinner

Description

For those who depend on the bounty of the sea for their livelihoods, climate change and its consequences (warming water, coral bleaching, rising sea levels) could spell disaster. The region comprising the eastern coastline of Africa and the islands of the western Indian Ocean--home to many of the Earth's most impoverished people--is particularly vulnerable to significant climate impacts.

Focusing on coral reef fisheries in these areas, which collectively support millions of people, this book provides a tool box of options for confronting the consequences of climate change through building local-scale adaptive capacity and improving the condition of natural resources. This requires strengthening a society's flexibility, assets, learning, and social organizations, as well as restricting or limiting its resource use. These two broad concepts--building social capacity and limiting certain types of resource use--interact in complicated ways, requiring coordinated actions. The authors argue that adaptation solutions are context dependent, determined in part by local resource conditions, human adaptive capacity, and exposure to climate change impacts, but also by a people's history, culture, and aspirations.

Providing an up-to-date and original synthesis of environmental stress, natural resources, and the socioeconomics of climate change, Adapting to a Changing Environment develops a framework to provide governments, scientists, managers, and donors with critical information about local context, encouraging the implementation of nuanced actions that reflect local conditions.

Adapting to a Changing Environment

Confronting the Consequences of Climate Change

Tim R. McClanahan and Joshua Cinner

Author Information

Tim McClanahan is a Senior Conservation Zoologist at the Wildlife Conservation Society. His science and conservation work focuses on tropical fisheries, climate change, ecology, and management of coral reefs.

Joshua Cinner is Senior Research Fellow at the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies at James Cook University. A human geographer, his research explores how poverty and other socioeconomic conditions influence how people use and govern natural resources.

Adapting to a Changing Environment

Confronting the Consequences of Climate Change

Tim R. McClanahan and Joshua Cinner

Reviews and Awards

"While this book has the magic words "climate change" in its subtitle, many of the issues it addresses would be critical even if global temperatures were static or cooling. McClanahan and Cinner focus "on the local and regional impacts of climate change to coastal ecosystems and societies"... Their concern and thorough research of these issues is the strength of their book." -- Natural Hazards Observer

Adapting to a Changing Environment

Confronting the Consequences of Climate Change

Tim R. McClanahan and Joshua Cinner

From Our Blog

By Tim McClanahan and Josh Cinner Human relationships with nature can follow different paths. Sometimes the path leads to the collapse of both ecosystems and society. History shows that the directions down this path are simple; unsustainable practices lead to severe environmental damage. This damage has various harmful feedbacks into society, particularly through food production.